Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/194

 betters in England is a more intelligent and elevated world than that of gamblers. To bet is according to the English temperament; so that not only the various members of the Reform Club made heavy bets for or against Phileas Fogg, but the mass of the public entered into the movement. Phileas Fogg was entered like a race horse in a sort of stud book. A bond was issued which was immediately quoted upon the London Exchange. "Phileas Fogg," was "bid" or "asked" firm or above par, and enormous transactions were made. But five days after his departure, after the appearance of the article in the Bulletin of the Geographical Society, the offerings commenced to come in plentifully. "Phileas Fogg" declined. It was offered in bundles. Taken first at five, then at ten, it was finally taken only at twenty, at fifty, at one hundred!

Only one adherent remained steadfast to him. It was the old paralytic, Lord Albemarle. This honorable gentleman, confined to his arm chair, would have given his fortune to be able to make the tour of the world, even in ten years. He bet five thousand pounds in favor of Phileas Fogg, and even when the folly as well as the uselessness of the project was demonstrated to him, he contented himself with replying: "If the thing is feasible, it is well that an Englishman should be the first to do it!"

The adherents of Phileas Fogg became fewer and fewer; everybody, and not without reason, was putting himself against him; bets were taken at one hundred and fifty and two hundred against one, when, seven days after his departure, an entirely unexpected incident caused them not to be taken at all.

At nine o'clock in the evening of this day, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police received a telegraphic dispatch in the following words:

" "Rowan, Commissioner of Police, Scotland Yard: I have the bank robber, Phileas Fogg. Send without delay warrant of arrest to Bombay (British India). ", Detective"

The effect of this dispatch was immediate. The honorable gentleman disappeared to make room for the bank-note robber. His photograph, deposited at the Reform Club